IZ*ONE stood in a semicircle facing the two instructors. They shifted the weight of their bags on their shoulders, they were nervous as a kid about to perform their piano recital. The sun had barely risen and it was their last day here in the training camp and they were about to have the hardest lesson so far.

“Today is your test day,” Instructor M announced, “my sister and I will evaluate you based on your skill, efficiency, and most importantly your teamwork.”

Instructor Ella continued, “The third day when your instructor wasn’t here, she was with me testing LOONA. But she came back for you on the other half of the day, which is what is gonna happen today with me.”

The young women did remember. Instructor M had told them that they would spend the first part of the day going into the Jungle Field and looking for things that could be useful for setting up a temporary shelter. In the second part of the day, they spent all their time learning how to tie up and connect pieces of wood together to construct a basic frame. Their instructor had said that learning how to make simple structures would make one of their future lessons a lot easier. Which happened to be the lesson they had the day before the test.

Instructor M took out a whiteboard with a list of things and held it up for everyone to see, then she slapped a dry erase marker with a magnetic cap on the board, “This is your mission board and it contains all of the objectives you need to complete to make the best survival environment for you. You have until 11:00 pm to finish this board.”

“And as an added tip,” the silver-haired twin said. “We put all of the objectives in order of importance. We will be following you guys around until you find the spot where you want to build your house and you’ll have to show us that you completed a mission before we scratch it out from the list.”

Instructor M smiled, “Well, it’s 6 o’clock, what are you waiting for?”

At those words, the young women huddled together and began to discuss.

Eunbi listed off things that could give them the best advantage: Open and flat area, near water, and shade if there’s strong winds or rain. They don’t have to find a spot that meets all the criteria, just something that satisfies most of the things she said. Everyone agreed and pulled away from the huddle.

With that, they began their trek through the jungle. They walked in a semi-uniform line with Eunbi and Chaeyeon leading and the twins at the back taking mental notes of their progress. They were glad that the instructors gave them some time the night before to pick a bag they wanted and put whatever they thought was necessary for the test. They even allowed them to pick the attire that they wanted, of course, the clothes were appropriate to the activity they’re doing.

They delved further into the jungle, deeper than they have previously in their lessons. Wonyoung suggested that they try heading west after she saw what she believes was a clearing, and the group complied since there have been no other signs of a better spot for them to make a camp.

Instructor M took note of how Nako complimented the giant maknae and told her that her being tall gave the whole group the advantage of spotting things from afar. She also didn’t fail to notice that the Japanese girl had said that it made her feel safe to have Wonyoung there, and the younger smiled and looked down at her feet.

“Do you guys hear that?” Yena said.

Hitomi strained her ears to hear the sound, “Yeah, it sounds like water.”

They followed the sound and pushed past the foliage to reveal a river. The girl group members collectively gasped, while the twins snickered in the back. IZ*ONE eagerly asked about this river that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. 

“How many times do we have to tell you?” they had said, “we changed this place to fit Fiji. Plus you guys haven’t been this far into the jungle yet.”

They got one of the criteria for the best spot Sakura mentioned, and there was also ample shade and blockage from the hypothetical wind. However, there was no flat and open surface to build on. So they picked a direction to go and continued their journey to find a suitable camping place.

Five minutes have passed and the girls have started to get antsy, and the main dancers of the group noticed it. Eunbi and Chaeyeon whispered amongst themselves. They could take a break and let the anxiousness pass, but the probable cause of the affliction in the first place was that they didn’t have a place to set up their shelter. Besides, they couldn’t afford to stop since they were on an invisible timer. All they could hope was that the members could hold on just a little longer.

It would’ve been nice to find their garden of Eden but nope. It took them another ten minutes or so to find it. On the plus side, they found one that checked all the boxes from Eunbi’s verbal list of advantages.

The spot was next to a water source, it was flat and open, and there was a huge tree for shade. Since they were not at the beach (and the Jungle Field didn’t have the technology to simulate a beach), they did not need to worry about strong winds bombarding them and their shelter.

IZ*ONE set their bags down and cheered at the small victory they’ve accomplished. The young women gazed at the twin instructors expectantly. Instructor M crossed out the first thing on the whiteboard, but on the other hand, the girl group groaned.

This was the first time they had a good look at the items on the whiteboard and they weren’t prepared with the number of objectives they had to complete. The next three things that they had to do was find suitable materials to then build a shelter, get as much food on the first run, and get a fire started at noon and tended until the end of the test. Those next three were deemed one of the most crucial things to be done first, which makes a lot of sense because they were going to be in Fiji for a whole week. At least they finished the most important thing.

“Alright,” Eunbi immediately took charge, “I remember that about four people in the Law Of The Jungle are in charge of building, but most of them were male. We should split the group in half since we don’t have any gentlemen to help us with hard labor. We need to compensate that with more people.”

“So we make the six most athletic people in our group be in charge of the shelter?” Hitomi said rummaging through her backpack.

Eunbi took out her kukri knife, “That’s the most logical thing to do.”

Yena sighed and joined Eunbi with her ax, “I think we all know who the people building are.”

Chaeyeon and Hyewon walked over to the others with tools of their choice. The four assessed the rest of the members, looking for the last two shelter builders. They needed someone tall to tie up the top corners of the frames and they also needed someone who could at least keep up with the pace at which they produce materials and transport them to the build spot.

“Minjoo and Yujin come here,” Eunbi beckoned them over.

The girls whose names were called took out their tools and stood up.

Chaeyeon tapped on their leader’s shoulder. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave the other team without a strong person, no offense to you guys,” she quickly added the last part. “Because there might be things that need a lot more force than normal.”

Eunbi didn’t even get to say anything as Yena took Chaeyeon’s arm and dragged her next to Sakura before grabbing Yuri’s hand and bringing her to the builder group, “There, that way you can be with Sak